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    <title>Fantasy World Influences</title>
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      <p>
      <h3 align="center">Fantasy World Influences</h3>
      </p>
      <p>No fantasy world is ever completely unique.  Every created place draws on some aspect of another, whether that other place is in
      real life or in a work of fiction.  Several great works of fantasy heavily influenced our own. Our created world draws from
      concepts like peoples&apos; ability to physically alter Fantastica from The Neverending Story, Alice&apos;s experiences in Wonderland
      from Alice&apos;s Adventure In Wonderland, and the people and places of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda to create a new and
      interesting world. In our world, the thoughts and emotions of the people slowly shape the world around them and even
      themselves, somewhat unknowingly, emphasizing how one&apos;s view of things affects their reality, a concept all of these worlds
      share.
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      <p>
      Alice&apos;s Adventure In Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, is about a world inside the mind of Alice, the story&apos;s title protagonist.
      This world is a chaotic and nonsensical place where playing cards have a kingdom, anthropomorphic animals have tea parties, and
      croquet is played with hedgehog balls and flamingo mallets.  While the world contains many interesting oddities, the parallel between
      that world and ours is what Wonderland represents and not its contents.  Alice&apos;s Wonderland is a physical representation of her mind,
      its thoughts and emotions.  She has a deep personal connection to the land she is in, as changes in her thoughts and emotions have an
      active physical effect on her world. Even her representation of herself changes in response to swings in her mental state.  Alice
      frequently changes sizes, varying from extremely large to extremely tiny. <table class="image" align="right"><tr><td>
      	<table class="image" align="left" width="300"><tr><td><a href="zeldamap.png"><img src="alice.png" width=300 height=280></a></td></tr><tr><td class="caption"><h6>[1] Alice
      	swimming in her sea of tears </h6></td></tr></table>
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      An example of Alice physically manipulating her world is
      when she begins to cry while she is gargantuan in size and creates a sea of tears that she is forced to swim through after she shrinks
      again. This ability to actively manipulate the physical world is an important part of our created fantasy world. Even though our world
      is not a direct representation of someone&apos;s mind, the people in it share a deeper connection to it, just like Alice, because of this 
      ability to manipulate it.  
      </p>
      <p>
      One of the major problems Alice faces in Wonderland is her identity.  She questions the chaotic world of Wonderland with its strange
      creatures and rules. Because this world is a physical representation of her own mind, what she is really questioning is herself 
      and who she really is.  Her uncertainties about herself are the cause of her rapid changes in size throughout the story.  In order 
      to understand herself she first has to understand Wonderland and the things in it.  Only by coming to understand herself and by 
      changing her outlook is she able to control her size and enter the garden at the end of the story. A similar theme is present in 
      our world.  People&apos;s feelings about their world change their perception of it and must learn to change themselves first in order 
      to change their view of the world.
      </p>
      <p>
      The most influential example for us of people being able to physically manipulate a world is the Neverending Story written by 
      Michael Ende.  Fantastica is the land of everyone&apos;s fantasies, dreams, and imaginations.  Anything that anyone has ever dreamt up 
      is in Fantastica. This world is separate from the real world and people&apos;s dreams from the real world affect it. Except for the 
      select few that know of both worlds, the people of the regular world do not know that their imagination has any effect on the 
      other world.  The same is the case with our world. For the most part, the inhabitants have no idea that they are changing the 
      space around them, because the changes are so slight as to not be noticed. The only person that can manipulate Fantastica while 
      inside it is whoever holds the AURYN, a pendant that grants wishes.  In our world, everyone subtly manipulates the world instead 
      of just one person and there is no special object that gives just one person that ability. Also, the manipulation of the world is 
      much more subtle and occurs over an extended period of time.
      </p>
      <p>
      The relationship between the real world and Fantastica shares significance with our world as well.  The major problem that 
      Fantastica faces is that it&apos;s slowly disappearing into the void.  This void represents peoples&apos; denial of their dreams and 
      fantasies. Any inhabitant of Fantastica that falls into the void becomes a lie that people in the real world think up, which 
      further aggravates the denial of dreams and fantasies creating a downward spiral.  This connection between the two worlds is 
      similar to the relationship between the land and its inhabitants in our created world.  Both affect each other in turn.  As people 
      change their world, their outlook on it changes, thus further affecting the physical world creating that same and seemingly 
      inescapable spiral. 
      </p>
      <p>
      One last influence on our created world is the people and places in the Legend of Zelda series of video games by Nintendo. 
      The world of Hyrule in these games is generally divided up into several unique areas.  Commonly seen areas include deserts, 
      forests, mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, and lakes or oceans.  Any distinct natural feature of the real world is emphasized in 
      Hyrule.  Our world is divided up into similar distinct areas to highlight the differences in the people from each region. 
      The type of landscape of an area generally gives some insight to what the people are like there.  For example, in The Legend of 
      Zelda rock-like creatures called Gorons inhabit the mountainous and volcanic region. <table class="image" align="right"><tr><td>
      	<table class="image" align="right" width=300><tr><td><a href="zeldamap.png"><img src="zeldamap.png" width=300 height=300></a>
      	</td></tr><tr><td class="caption"><h6>[2] A map from the overworld of <i>A Link to The Past</i>,<br /> a 1991 Zelda game</h6></td></tr></table></div> Gorons are generally prideful and stubborn 
      like the rocks they live under.  In Twilight Princess, they are too prideful to ask for help when their leader is taken over by 
      an ancient artifact and they are forced to trap him in their mines. Instead they prohibit anyone from entering their domain.  
      This type of situation of the people being representative of the region they live in is present in our world as well.  Unlike in 
      The Legend of Zelda series, where there is no explanation for how creatures like the Gorons came into being, our world would 
      portray the how the pride and stubbornness of the people slowly changed them and the area they live in into what they are now.
      </p>
      <p>
      All of these worlds share some characteristics that played a major role in the design of our world.  Both Wonderland and 
      Fantastica contributed to the &quot;rules&quot; that govern the physical world even though they were not really a part of any of the 
      physical features of it.  Both showed how one person or a group or people in general manipulate the world by what they think 
      up.  On the opposite side of the coin is Hyrule, which, even though it didn&apos;t contribute to any of the physical laws, provided 
      much of the inspiration for the layout and features of the world.  Its distinct places and races make for an interesting and 
      diverse world to explore.  Together, these ideas combine to form the structure of our world, in both its physical and 
      world-governing structure.
      </p>
      <br /><h4 align="center">Works Cited</h4>
      <p>
      Caroll, Lewis. <i>Alice&apos;s Adventures in Wonderland</i>. Macmillan, 1865.  Print. 7 March, 2012.<br /><br />
      Ende, Michael. <i>The Neverending Story</i>. Theinemann Verlag, 1979. Print.  5 March, 2012.<br /><br />
      <i>The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess</i>. Nintendo, 2006. 9 March,2012.<br /><br />
      </p>
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      <h6>
      [1] http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/alicepic/alice-in-wonderland/1book6.jpg<br />
      [2] http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090330002333/zelda/images/b/be/A_Link_to_the_Past_Overworld_Map_(Light_World).png</h6>
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